Next Stop: Capitol Hill

Journey To Test Courage, Determination

Woman Aims To Promote Social Justice Through Bike Ride

June 05, 2001|By CHARLES STANNARD; Courant Staff Writer

KILLINGWORTH — Daphne Lagasse was looking for a challenge as she prepared to return to Connecticut after seven years in North Carolina.

Hoping to transform her views on social justice into specific results, the former social worker will depart on June 12 for a cross country bicycle ride to raise money for a variety of grass-roots organizations that promote social change and equality in the United States. She will be one of 27 cyclists participating in Bike-Aid 2001, a San Francisco-to-Washington, D.C., trip organized by the nonprofit organization JustAct.

``I wanted to do something that would mean something, as opposed to just going across the country,'' she said. ``It's not for a single cause, but for a number of causes.''

Lagasse, 39, will be the oldest rider in a group that includes many college students participating in political activism for the first time. Each cyclist has pledged to raise a dollar a mile, or $3,600, for the local groups supported by JustAct.

Laura McNeill, Bike-Aid program director, said riders will ``discover the unexpected both in themselves and in communities across the United States'' as they meet and work with local organizations at stops along the route. Among the causes and organizations supported by this year's ride are a Minnesota-based literacy program for women in prison, activities at the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana, and organizations fighting racism in Kansas and Ohio.

A 1980 graduate of Haddam-Killingworth High School, Lagasse has already devoted a career to helping the less fortunate. After earning a bachelor's degree in social work and a master's degree in public administration, she spent seven years as both a child and adult social worker in Burlington Vt.

Her commitment to social change intensified during two years working with youth diagnosed with mental illness and criminal records at the Butner Adolescent Treatment Center in North Carolina. But Lagasse said the stress of working in a locked facility led her to shift careers in the late 1990s to establish a catering business in the Chapel Hill area.

A recent divorce brought Lagasse back to Killingworth with a desire to do something meaningful before planning the next stage in her life.

``You kind of have to put everything else on hold to do something like this,'' she said.

Lagasse's group will leave San Francisco on June 16, traveling between 40 and 100 miles each day on a route that takes riders through seven states to join another Bike-Aid group at an Aug. 5 anti-racism rally outside of Cincinnati. The trip ends on Aug. 19 in Washington, D.C., where the riders will spend several days lobbying Congress for social justice and environmental issues.

A former high school track and cross country athlete who has been an avid biker for more than a decade, Lagasse said she is ready for the physical challenge of a cross country bike ride. But she is looking forward to meeting local volunteers at stops along the way the most.

``We're going to stop and actually get out there and do a lot of community service along the road,'' she said.